The 2016 Kavli Prize laureates discuss the brain’s remarkable capacity for change and how that is causing us to rethink human potential. The connections between neurons are shaped by spontaneous rhythmic activity that begins even before birth. Carla Shatz’s lab has shown that a class of immune molecules that fend off viruses also help to sculpt the tangle of connections in the developing brain. (Credit: G. Huh et al., Science, 2000) OUR VIEW OF THE BRAIN as something constantly shaped by thought and experience is only a few decades old, yet it has profoundly influenced how we teach and treat, raise our young and care for the old. Eve Marder, Michael Merzenich and Carla Shatz are three researchers who, in very different ways, have revealed that the brain is highly…